


Suffering and Solace

by bananacosmicgirl



Category: H2O: Just Add Water
Genre: 2x01 "Control", F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-16 00:39:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/855798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananacosmicgirl/pseuds/bananacosmicgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A different take on the events of 2x01 “Control”.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Suffering and Solace

**Author's Note:**

> Response to prompts 2 and 7 on my Hurt/Comfort table. Alternate take on 2x01 “Control”, starting half-way through the episode. Though a good episode, I found the one part silly – Lewis gets thrown way up in the air, into an electrical storm with 200km/hour winds and lots of lightning, and he gets out of it without a single bruise? Right.

  
\--

Chapter one  
 **Suffering**

\--

Blood trickled down the side of his face and there was a metallic taste in his mouth. 

Pain shot through Lewis’ body as he lifted his head to look around. He was on the outside of the crater, hard rock below him. A cry escaped him as blinding pain travelled up from his leg, shooting out like a lightning bolt. It must be broken, possibly in more than one place.

He craned his neck to look up, ignoring the throbbing in his head. He’d landed a while down on the mountain.

Flashes of what had happened the night before – he wondered how many hours had passed since; the sun had started to rise – passed through his mind. Fresh fear coursed through his body – if they came after him again, still possessed by the full moon, and used their powers on him, they’d kill him. Really, he might die out here anyway, if he didn’t get help.

His cell phone was in his pocket. Another agonizing bolt of pain shot through him as he moved to get it, every fibre of his being hoping that it would still be all right, that it had survived the fall. If it wasn’t he’d be dead long before anyone found him. Even if a search party was out looking now, it would be hours before they found him – he was hidden amongst bushes and trees on the rocky side of the mountain. Perhaps he should be grateful that he had, at least, landed on the ground rather than in a treetop.

The display of his cell phone was broken, but to his great relief, it seemed to be working. 

He wondered who he should call.

His first thought was Cleo. But the moon had yet to go down, and she might still be crazy. He couldn’t risk it. And besides, though she was the person he wanted to see, she wouldn’t be able to help him. He needed more; he needed professional help.

Dialling the emergency number instead, he spoke to a lady, who sounded horrified when he described where he was. Apparently, the meteorologists had recorded the sudden storm that had passed over Mako Island the day before. Then again, he didn’t need them to tell him just how bad it had been – he’d been in the middle of it, soaring through the sky, unable to breathe, unable to think. 

He didn’t hang up; the lady told him to stay on the line. His parents might get angry for a huge bill, he thought, but they’d have to deal with it. He didn’t want to be alone, not now. Not when his head throbbed and his leg was torturing him, not when he tasted blood in his mouth. 

He thought he heard a helicopter, but he couldn’t be sure. When the paramedics came to get him off the island, he was so out of it that he didn’t even register it.

  
\--

They stood on the shore of Mako Island, and Cleo’s stomach wouldn’t stop churning with fear. Where was Lewis? What had they done to him? Was he here still, injured somewhere, frightened and hurt? Had they made the storm? They must have – and they must have hurt Lewis.

“We have to find him,” she cried, and Emma wrapped her arms around her.

They’d searched for hours already, finding no traces of him, other than his torch – the torch Cleo had given him last Christmas. She held onto it as though it was a teddy bear, a safety blanket in the midst of a storm of fear.

Her phone rang suddenly. 

“Lewis?” she asked immediately, not looking at the screen for caller ID.

“No, sweetheart,” her father said. “But they just called about him—”

“They?” she asked, blood running cold.

“He’s in the hospital,” he said. “Apparently, he was out on Mako last night when the storm hit. He’s in a pretty bad shape.”

“I—oh god,” she breathed, fresh tears falling. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She hung up, and sobbed to Emma and Rikki. “He’s in the hospital! What did we do to him?”

Neither had an answer for her, but followed her as she ran out into the water and sped back towards the mainland. Her heart raced, and it felt as though she was going to be sick. Tears washed away from her face immediately, but she knew her eyes would be red and puffy once they were on dry land again.

Rikki scalded both herself and Cleo as she tried to dry them all off quickly, but Cleo didn’t care. She just had to get to the hospital as fast as she could, and she was off running before Emma had had time to dry.

They ran there. It wasn’t far, the white hospital building looming before them within ten minutes. Cleo was panting heavily, but she kept going, adrenaline coursing through her veins. Driven by fear and anxiousness, she couldn’t stop.

She threw the doors to the hospital open, and hurried to the receptionist.

“Lewis,” she panted. “Lewis McCartney.”

The man behind the counter looked at his computer, hitting keys on the keyboard. It took him a few seconds to find the correct patient, but it seemed like forever to Cleo.

“Down in the ICU,” the man said. “Are you family?”

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I am.”

Cleo didn’t care about the fact that she was lying. She had to see him. She looked at Emma and Rikki.

“Go,” Rikki said. “We’ll be there in a little while.”

Cleo nodded, knowing her friends understood her need to see Lewis alone.

He was wrapped up in gauze, a cast covering his right leg. There were cuts and bruises on his face, a large piece of gauze taped to the side of his head. His skin was pasty white where it wasn’t bruised in blues and purples. She’d never seen him, or anyone else for that matter, in such bad shape before.

“Oh god,” she whispered, crying.

She ran to his side and stopped there, hovering a few centimetres from him. She wanted to touch him, wanted to make sure that he was at least breathing, but she was afraid that he might break if she touched him.

What had she done? What had they done? For the first time, she hated herself and the powers she’d been granted. She didn’t want to hurt Lewis – she never, ever wanted to hurt him. She would have given up her mermaid powers and her tail in a second at that moment, to keep Lewis safe and healthy.

Carefully, she picked up his hand in her own.

His eyelids fluttered and opened at the touch. He blinked slowly. “’leo.”

His voice was hoarse, but it was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard.

Lewis squeezed her hand weakly.

“I’m sorry,” Cleo sobbed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

He smiled slightly, tiredly. “It’s ‘kay, ‘leo.”

“No, it’s not,” Cleo said. “We did this. We hurt you. _I_ hurt you.”

“’ll be fine,” he mumbled.

“Yes,” she said, “Yes, you’ll be fine. Don’t you dare be anything else.”

She turned to leave, wanted to talk to a doctor, see what was wrong with him and how long it would take to fix. But his fingers tightened around her hand.

“Stay with me,” he said softly, and there was a hint of fear in his voice that she hadn’t heard before.

“Okay,” she said, choking, and sat back down, not letting go of his hand.

  
\--

Chapter two  
 **Solace**

\--

He would wake every now and then, wondering each time before he regained consciousness completely, if he was going to find himself back in the rocks of Mako Island when he opened his eyes. In his dreams, he was back there, flying through the air, helpless against the winds. Bolts of lightning split the sky around him and rain smashed into his face, each drop of water feeling like a tiny bullet on his skin because they hit him so hard.

In his dreams, Lewis saw them stand below him, hands outstretched, faces furious. Emma and Rikki with eyes cold as ice – and Cleo’s usually warm brown eyes holding no recognition of him whatsoever. There was something primal, something frightening. He feared for his life as he looked at her, as he soared higher and higher into the air, knowing that coming down from these heights could do nothing but hurt – if he came down alive at all.

He woke with a start. 

A dark head of hair rested on the side of his bed, warm hands holding onto his. 

He wasn’t there, wasn’t at Mako, and she was no longer under the spell of the full moon.

He moved his free hand and ran it through her hair. It felt soft beneath his fingers, and it was worth aggravating his injured body to touch her. 

She had barely left his side in the last two days – only when he’d insisted that she go get a bite to eat did she leave, and then just to buy the food and return to his side. 

There were tear tracks on her cheeks and they made his heart constrict with the knowledge that she was hurting. He knew it would take a long time for her to trust herself and her powers again. All three girls would be more careful with the full moon from now on – perhaps that was the only positive thing about what had happened. He knew he’d require physical therapy for weeks or even months to come, to learn to walk again with the leg that had been broken in five places, the other foot sprained badly.

Cleo stirred at his touch, and sat up, blinking slowly.

“Lewis?”

“Yeah,” he said. 

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping? Did I wake you?” she asked immediately, worried.

“I’ve slept enough,” he said gently. “You didn’t wake me up; I woke up all by myself.”

“Oh,” she said. “Good.”

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Me? I’m fine,” she said. “You’re the one with your leg in a cast and a concussion and—all that.”

He had a sprained wrist and two broken ribs as well, making him one big bruise, but he knew her reluctance to say all of his injuries out loud. Guilt rolled off her in waves. He wanted to say that it wasn’t her fault, but in a way, it was, and even though he could blame a lot of it on the moon and the magical powers they didn’t understand, _she_ couldn’t transfer the blame. She felt guilty, and blaming it on an unidentified, magical force was impossible for her. He knew as much. 

Still, he had to try. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“How can you say that?” she asked. “We—we did this. It is our fault.”

He lifted his hand and touched her cheek. She was so soft, so good, so perfectly wonderful, and he hated seeing her in distress. He had no idea what to say or do to make it all right. 

“You should’ve been more careful under the full moon,” he said. “But beyond that, it’s not your fault.”

“It is,” she insisted, eyes filling with tears. “How can you even look at me? You nearly died because of me.”

“I can look at you because I’m in love with you,” Lewis said. 

She choked on her tears, and buried her face in her hands.

“Cleo, come here,” he said. 

He held out his arm to her, motioning for her to come up onto the bed. She must be exhausted after two days of sitting by his side.

She moved hesitantly. Getting onto the bed, she managed to lie down without actually touching him, seeming frightened of doing anything of the sort. 

“I won’t break if you touch me,” he said. “I’ll tell you if it hurts.”

She bit her lip, but moved slightly, resting her head on his shoulder. He only had a bit of a bruise there, and the good feeling of having her close outweighed the pain it brought, so he let her be, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her closer. Her father would have a heart attack if he came in now – girls and boys should not be cuddling on a bed together – but he was out on his boat, so Lewis figured he was safe. And either way, he couldn’t care less. He needed her close, needed to have her and hold her.

He felt her shake, and a wet spot grew where her cheek rested. 

Lewis kissed the top of her head, not knowing what else to do to dry her tears. Then they simply relaxed, and he hoped she could find the same solace in their closeness that he did.


End file.
